So I’m sitting on the sofa this morning with my P90X partner (my adult daughter) looking at before and after photos of P90X participants. My daughter and I are six days into the 90 day commitment and already my enthusiasm has been challenged. My muscles ache! We’ve worked hard this week doing exercises I’d never otherwise do.

Which is why it’s helping me a lot to see photos of women similar to my age and body type that started out even softer and/or chunkier than I am at present. I can visually see what they looked like before and simultaneously see they have achieved the size and definition I desire. I have every confidence if they can do it, so can I. Just now I saw a photo of a woman who appears to be about my age with fantastic looking arms. In her before photo her arms had the same shape I see in my arms when they are relaxed. While this clearly is a symptom of aging, it’s not something I’m taking gracefully. I LOVE summer clothes–especially summer dresses. In my opinion there is nothing that ruins the effect of a stylish summer dress stretched around a soft pudgy body with two plump, flabby arms hanging out.

Thus to see a woman who clearly no long enjoys the advantages of youth but is able to acquire a slender figure with awesome definition all over but particularly her arms is truly inspiring, and has served to help me feel re-energized and otherwise motivated to get up, put on my work-out clothing and do today’s workout.

This workout program was actually not my idea. Granted I’ve known for some time something like this was needed. Prior to both my adult kids (and my grand-baby) moving back home (one home from the Marine Corps, one the spouse of an unfaithful husband), I had a spare bedroom set up with a manual treadmill, which I was beginning to use. My youngest child (my midlife surprise) and I would go in there 5 days a week and watch a documentary program while I walked on the treadmill and used a resistance band to work my arms. However, once my grandchild was born and a month later my daughter learned her husband of one year was, and had been, cheating (online affairs) on her since prior to their marriage (international internet relationships are not such a good way to go), I stopped working out.

Fast forward 8 months, to now. My daughter determined, after research, the P90X workout program was the means whereby she could successfully lose weight and get in shape, her desire after gaining weight due to pregnancy, and the subsequent stress of a newborn topped off with a marriage in crisis.

Once the program arrived in the mail she asked if I’d like to join her in it. I agreed. I’m not sure why I agreed so quickly as I didn’t actually think it over. I suppose it was simply because it seemed like a good idea, and I wanted to support her. Where my initial commitment came from is rather a mystery, but it was there. That first day I was the one that said lets get to it. I’m glad it’s there; particularly on the days when a workout is really tough. Now we each motivate the the other along. It seems when one is inclined to slack off the other reminds that we’ve made a commitment and it’s gonna be worth it.

So I keep at it because I want that end goal. And these photos, which are of real people, help much to keep me inspired. If they can do it, I know I can do it. And in reality, the workouts really aren’t that bad. The toughest thing actually seems to be getting over the mental resistance as once we launch into a workout each individual exercise is not bad at all. The only exception being the workout that requires a lot of jumping.That one whooped my butt. I’m not really sure if I’ll ever take that one one again. But thanks to these inspiring photos, each time I groan inwardly when it’s time to do pull-ups (one of my least favorite exercises), I’m going to visualize that woman’s amazingly toned arms knowing one day in the near future that kind of tone and definition will be mine!

Here’s my chance to prove to myself and the world that I can be fit and fab at 50 and beyond!